Revealing mistake: Right before Ripley discovers all of the eggs that the Alien Queen has laid, look at Newt's fingers as Ripley is carrying her - It's obviously a fake hand. Newt is in fact a dummy in this scene, and others preceding the chase from the Alien Queen. This dummy was created so that Weaver would not get exhausted carrying a real child around for so many scenes/takes.
Aliens (1986)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: James Cameron
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Carrie Henn
It is revealed that the Company - specifically, Burke - sent the colonists on LV-426 to the Alien ship in hopes of obtaining an Alien for research purposes. Burke releases two facehuggers to impregnate Ripley and Newt, but the Marines intervene; Burke is exposed and nearly killed for his actions. However, at that exact moment, the Aliens attack in force, leading to the deaths of everybody except Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and the "artificial person" Bishop. While trying to escape, the Aliens capture Newt and injure Hicks; Ripley, loaded with weapons from the second dropship, enters the Aliens' lair and confronts the Queen Alien to save Newt. Ripley frees Newt, decimates the lair, and returns to the dropship, with the Queen hot on her trail. As the dropship departs, the colony's fusion reactor overloads, destroying the colony (and the Aliens' lair). Back aboard the Sulaco, all seems well until the Queen emerges from the landing gear area of the dropship. The Queen Alien tears Bishop in half and then chases Newt around while Ripley gets into a "loader" (seen earlier in the movie) and uses it to fight the Queen. Finally, Ripley manages to eject the Queen into space, while Bishop prevents Newt from being sucked out with the Queen. Hicks, Ripley, Newt, and the remaining half of Bishop finish by entering stasis for the trip back to Earth.
Mark Cuss
[All ammunition has been confiscated.]
Marine: What are we supposed to use? Harsh language?.
Trivia: The name 'Sulaco' was taken from a novel by Joseph Conrad. The name of the novel? 'Nostromo' of course.
Question: If the company knew about the Aliens from the start and coveted them as a bioweapon, why did it take 57 years and the reappearance of Ripley for someone from the company to make another effort to get one? In the intervening 57 years, wouldn't the company have sent someone out to the derelict spaceship wreckage?
Answer: For me anyway, the company doesn't seem to be as hostile as they do in Alien. Won't surprise me that in 57 years there has been a change in leadership and they are no longer interested in capturing the alien, Burke seems to operating on his own. Minor plot hole ultimately.
I think the original answer is right and they simply didn't know where the crashed ship was located on the planet since the beacon was deactivated and all information was on the Nostromo and with Ripley. They built a colony there to find it eventually, just takes a long time. Until they got lucky and found Ripley. Burke is definitely not working on his own though, they still knew about the aliens and the original idea still remained, capture aliens and bring them back to study.
Yes that's right, because when Ripley has a run in with Burke he says that this specimen is worth millions to the bio weapons division and if we bring it back we will be made for life.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: The company doesn't wait 57 years, they built a colony on the planet over 20 years prior to finding Ripley. The company was apparently unaware of the exact location of the derelict spacecraft. After finding Ripley and obtaining information from her, Burke was able to send the Jorden family to the precise location of the derelict spacecraft.